Detective and mystery stories; Stone, Fleming (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
Embury was full of admiration at the beautiful picture she made, but
pursuant of his inexorable plan, he rose to “tame” her.
“‘Tiger, tiger, burning bright,’“ he quoted, “you must take
back that speech--it is neither pretty nor tactful--”
“I have no wish to be tactful! Why should I? I am not trying to
coax or cajole you! You refuse my request--you have repeatedly refused
me--now, I am at the end of my patience, and I shall take matters into
my own hands!”
“Lovely hands!” he murmured, taking them in his own. “You have
unusually pretty hands, Eunice; it would be a pity to use them to earn
money.”
“Yet that is my intention. I shall get money by the work of these
hands. It will be in a way that you will not approve, but you have
forfeited your right to approve or disapprove.”
“That I have not! I am your husband--you have promised to obey me--”
“A mere form of words--it meant nothing!”
“Our marriage ceremony meant nothing?”
“If it did, remember that you endowed me with all your worldly
goods--”
“And I give them to you, too! Do you know that nine-tenths of my
yearly expenditures are for your pleasure and benefit! I enjoy our home,
too, but it would not be the elaborate, luxurious establishment that it
is, but that it suits your taste to have it so! And then, you whine and
fret for what you yourself call a paltry matter! Ingrate!”
“Don’t you dare call me ingrate! I owe you no gratitude! Do you give
me this home as a charity? As a gift, even! It is my right! And it is
also my right to have a bank account of my own! It is my right to uphold
my head among other women who laugh at me, who ridicule me, because,
with all your wealth, I have no purse of my own! I will not stand it!
I rebel! And you may rest assured things are going to be different
hereafter. I will get money--”
“You shall not!” Embury grasped the wrists of the hands he still
held, and his face was fiercely frowning. “You are my wife, and
whatever you may or may not owe to me, you owe it to our position, to
our standing in the community to do nothing beneath your dignity or
mine!”
“You care nothing for my dignity, for my appearance before other
women, so why should I consider your dignity? You force me to it, and it
is therefore your fault if I--”
“What is it you propose to do? How are you going to get this absurd
paltry sum you are making such a fuss about?”
“That I decline to tell you--”
“Don’t you dare to do needlework or anything that would make me look
foolish. I forbid it!”
“And I scorn your forbidding! Make you look foolish, indeed! When you
make me look foolish every day of my life, because I can’t do as other
women do--can’t have what other wives have--”
“Now, now, Tiger, don’t make such a row over nothing--let’s talk
it over seriously--”
“There’s nothing to talk over. I’ve asked you time and again for
an allowance of money--real money, not charge accounts--and you always
refuse--”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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